


Tails from the Forest

by Jonaira



Category: Chronicles of Ancient Darkness - Michelle Paver
Genre: Coad mini fic, Comfort No Hurt, Coming of Age, F/M, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluffy Ending, Forests, Growing Up, Humor, Idiots in Love, Languages, Languages and Linguistics, Light Angst, Pack Bonding, Pack Dynamics, Prehistoric, Teaching, Travel, Wolf Pack, Wolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 10:09:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17221988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jonaira/pseuds/Jonaira
Summary: Torak teaches Renn wolf-speak. That's not all she learns though.





	Tails from the Forest

 

"That's the third time he's run away from me!" Renn exclaimed, dropping her armful of firewood in favor of throwing up her arms in complete and utter exasperation.  
Pebble, who was the subject of her ire had scampered off into the trees nearby. Which would have been perfectly fine if he hadn’t had her knife clutched in his teeth.

Torak had the gall to chuckle. To actually _chuckle_. Renn considered pitching a nice-sized twig at his head.

"I keep forgetting, you don't actually speak wolf." he got out in between snickers.

Renn sat down in a huff and began collecting her dropped pile of wood. She squashed down the twinge of regret at her dramatics. "How, exactly is that something you could forget ? Anyhow, I wasn't even aware that I was saying something," she grumbled.

"Renn," Torak told her gently as he set down his own bundle and started helping her gather her dropped pile, "so much of wolf-speak is in gestures an-"  
"And movement. I know. You've told me this before." she cut across him, still exasperated. "But _I_ don't know which motions are significant and at this rate, Pebble is not going to like me much for things I myself don't realize I'm saying."

They finished piling the wood and Torak sat back on his arms. He looked at her thoughtfully. "It helps if you don't think about wolf-talk as saying actual words. More like," he scratched his nose, waving his hand about expansively, "feelings and directives."

"So did I just direct Pebble to steal my knife ?"

"You sort of told him not to challenge your authority."

She dropped her sticks again. _Carefully_ , this time.

"You looked directly at him too long. It's taken as sign of challenge, and because he considers you higher up in the pack than he is, he submitted to you. He doesn't understand why you felt the need to assert rank over him though, he's trying to be polite by giving you your space, hence the running away. Maybe he'll even get you a gift."

"I was just looking at the new colours in his fur !"

Torak shrugged in response.

"Still, why take my knife ?"

"Ah, that's just Pebble being a cub." his teeth had flashed.

Renn gave up on collecting the wood and sat back on her arms, mirroring Torak's posture. "Why not say something to me then. Tell me that I'm doing or saying something I shouldn't be." She tried to hide the hurt in her voice, keep the old bitterness buried deep. That which used to whisper to her the reason why Torak would not teach her wolf-speak was so that his bond with Wolf could never be challenged by _her_ developing friendship with Wolf.

She understands now that love doesn’t work that way. But as a lonely ten year old who had never had a friend, always merely tolerated even within her own clan, it hadn’t seemed as ridiculous a notion then.

Still, it makes her feel better when Torak looks at her wide eyed and earnest and says, "Renn, you interact with the wolves so naturally most of the time, it doesn't even seem like you need to know the specifics of wolf-talk to get the message across."  
He ducked his head then, looking back up at her a little shyly."It's just that you're usually good at everything you do."

She shredded a bit of grass.

"Listen," Torak told her, "if it bothers you that much, I'll teach you as much Wolf-talk as I know." At the small smile that showed up on her face, he carefully added, "We physically can't say or understand some of the finer details because we don't have tails and movable ears, but it's more than enough to get by on."

***

In the following days, Renn learnt a lot _about_ a lot.  
She'd never completely understand how Torak could be such a phenomenal tracker, but learning how to listen and watch for the tiniest of movements of the wolves' bodies and then turning that into a habit that applied for the rest of the forest was definitely a bound in the right direction.

Wolves, and Torak by extension, did not merely look. They _watched_ , took in every detail around them. And while observation was important she realized, what made a human as good a hunter as a wolf despite their weaker senses, was that the best trackers always thought about the _meaning_ of what they were seeing.

Somethings, like the way they would prick their ears, stand taller and straighter to see further to where the prey was were all familiar to her. Others, like the way Wolf and Darkfur would hold Pebble back from tearing into the carcass, to allow Torak first pick at butchering it was new.

"In a pack, the lead wolf eats first." Torak had explained to her. "And the rest of the pack trusts them to leave enough for everyone else." he'd continued, cutting off a haunch of deer for the wolves, watching the way Pebble wagged his tail slightly in thanks.

The wolves wouldn't merely _hear_ sounds- they listened to every rustle of the leaves, every flap of wings, every howl on the wind. Renn began to understand why Torak needed the time and space away from people, how he was so comfortable alone in the woods without the murmur of conversation, the sounds of camp with its clicks of tools on stone and hum of activity all around.  
The sounds that she'd always found comforting, were to him distracting.

When he was used to listening and watching for everything, not only when he was tracking, but all the time simply as a way of life, the constant activity would cover-up the unusual sounds and sights, the interesting non-routine ones.

Like a sleeping sack pulled over one's head when there was a whole world to explore. Safe, comfortable, and dull.

In all her years of knowing him, he had always struck her as distinctly wolfish. She was only now discovering how truly deep it went.

When they lay under the open sky on warm evenings, watching the Moon mother's cubs play across the sky, Renn worried sometimes that the reason she had begun to understand Torak's love for freedom, and enjoy it herself was because _her_ souls wished to wander out of her body as well.

Torak was a Spirit Walker; his souls had always been willing to travel, even though they came back eventually. After the Mountain of Ghosts though, when his spirit had begun the climb to the heavens, they seemed to have made their peace with leaving his body entirely, and now sat waiting patiently within his marrow for the next time he spirit walked.

"Wolf brought me back. He always has." Torak had told her quietly one night as he watched the fire.

It was inevitable then, Renn thought, that Torak would need the freedom to travel, when his very souls yearned to cover the ground, air and water in their footsteps.

But what about her.

Why did this life of setting up camp in a new spot of the forest for not more than a few days at a time come so painlessly, so easily to her ?

At first she'd thought it was just the happiness of being able to be with him, to live and travel because they wanted to and not because the fate of the forest rested on their shoulders, not because the Soul Eaters were trying to kill Torak.

But she had learnt that nothing so puzzling ever had only one reason. Maybe is was because it wasn't their travels didn't mean they couldn't ever visit the Ravens, or even the other clans they had grown close to over the summers.

They hadn't been outcast afterall, she thought with a shudder, feeling the phantom brush of long reeds and hearing the gurgle of the dying lake.

Infact, it was Torak who had first asked her if she felt like visiting the Ravens just a few days short of a full moon since they’d first set off down that hill. She had surprised herself by saying no.  
Renn wonders if it's because of the spirit of the Raven in her. The way those birds could fly for days, ranging out from their home territory and exploring the land. But then again, Ravens too always came home to roost. She traced the lightning tattoos on her wrists that never failed to remind her of both Saeunn and the White Foxes. She missed the Raven mage, who would have probably cackled at her doubts and told her that souls were not as fickle as people.

So learning to speak wolf was a welcome distraction from the way her mind went around in circles about this.

It seemed she thought, half exasperated half amused, that if there wasn't a situation to worry about, Renn herself would create one for her mind to gnaw impotently at like a dog with a bone.

Pebble no longer looked like a cub anymore, the fluff of his pelt giving way to sleek guard hair, standing knee-high to her already. But his parents most certainly treated him like one, and he did act like a cub on most days, enjoying games of tug when they hunt and prepare the carcass, rolling around in fallen leaves and waggling his paws, yowling with contentment. Now that Torak was teaching her what to look for, she learned probably the most from watching Pebble interact with Wolf and Darkfur.

It took a while to see it, but Pebble himself was still learning wolf talk, new things to 'say', new movements and sounds to learn. With Torak to translate for her, she can't say it's easy, but it's an engaging and rewarding activity. She also began to learn just how distinct the wolves' personalities were.

Wolf was extremely patient. With her, as well as with Pebble. He rarely muzzle grabbed Pebble's scruff, and that too only when Pebble was in danger of badly injuring himself when about to do something silly. She also realizes that if doing something silly wouldn't cause them to get hurt, Wolf himself was most likely to join in, if not initiate it.

When she asked Torak about this, he'd laughed. It always warmed her to think how often he did that these days. How it made him look so much younger that he'd ever did before.

"I think it's because they never really grow _out_ of being cubs. A wolf," he'd taken her hand, “ is the sum of every stage of his life, because he never forgets. He never forgets what it is to be a cub, then an adolescent, once the youngest or most junior member of the pack. Even the oldest wolf remembers what it felt like to play in the den, and will do so with a new litter of cubs. It's how they learn to pounce, to stalk. Everything they need to know to hunt successfully. Getting hurt sometimes is part of learning that."

***

Wolf loved the pack sister.  
Even if she confused him sometimes with her attempts at talking wolf.  
Though she learned much slower than any cub he had met before, Wolf knew that the pack sister was very clever indeed. Once she learned something, she never forgot. Still though, she made some silly mistakes, like letting his cub step over her sometimes even though she was more senior than him in the pack

Which was something else that confused Wolf. She was clearly Tall Tailless’ mate, and yet they never _behaved_ like him and Darkfur, for instance. Never once did they muzzle lick each other, or help groom each other. At night, they never curled up next to the other for warmth, always sleeping separately in their own reindeer pelts.  
He asked Darkfur what she thought about this. Darfur, who had never much patience for the strange ways of the taillesses, had told him that maybe they just didn't know how to behave like mates.  
There was no point asking the cub, Wolf supposed. He was more interested in playing with the ravens. Wolf loved his cub, he really did, but like Tall Tailless sometimes, he confused Wolf to no end.

One morning, as the spring wind carried the breath of summer in it, Wolf watched as they washed in a small quick wet.

He saw how Tall-Tailless would look away quickly from his mate when he caught sight of her through the trees near the wet, blood rising to the skin of his cheeks as he gathered berries close enough to keep an eye on her, but still far away to give her privacy.

At night, his pack brother and his mate would lean against each other, yipping softly in tailless talk as they sat by the bright beast that bit hot. And then, even though they clearly wanted to stay close to each other, the taillesses would draw apart and crawl into their sleeping pelts.  
Tall Tailless as usual fell asleep as quick as a wolf, but the pack sister stayed awake for a long time, sometimes looking into the Up, sometimes not looking away from Tall Tailless as he slept.

Wolf asked Tall Tailless the next day if he didn't like the pack sister anymore. Tall Tailless jerked back in surprise.

_I like her very much. Why ?_

Wolf wrinkled his muzzle in confusion.

_Are you angry with her ?_

Now Tall Tailless wrinkled his muzzle in confusion

_No !_

Wolf flicked his ears. _Then why do you never muzzle lick her ?_

Once again, the blood came to the surface of his face. _It means something different in Tailless,_ he told Wolf grumpily.

 _It means you like her and are happy to see her. Are you not happy to see your mate ?_ Why did Tall Tailless, clever pack brother of his, not understand something so simple? Darkfur couldn't have been correct, could she ? That the taillesses simply didn't know how to show their mate that they liked them? Wolf knew that Tall Tailless knew how to greet a pack member or mate well enough- Wolf muzzle licked him and he always returned the greeting.

This was something even a cub whose eyes hadn't yet opened knew ! Because he loved Tall Tailless Wolf tried asking again.  
Tall Tailless fell back into the grass and covered his eyes with both paws.  
Wolf nosed at him, nibbling his chin.  
Tall Tailless buried his paws in Wolf's scruff and gave him a wolf kiss.  
_We aren't mates_ he told Wolf.  
Wolf blinked at him. _But you_ feel _like mates. You just don't behave like mates_ he whined.  
Wolf knew that even though he was not-wolf, Tall Tailless had the soul of a wolf. He had, after all, met that very soul and guided it back into his pack brother's not-breath body on the mountain.

And when a wolf liked another of their pack, even if not mates as his pack brother insisted, they showed it by muzzle licks.

If he wasn't careful, Tall Tailless might irritate the pack sister altogether! Wolf already knew that she was worried about something. She slept fitfully, waking nearly as often as a normal wolf through the dark. He could smell that her souls were not at peace within her. Maybe it was because she thought Tall Tailless was angry with her, even though he certainly doesn’t seem to be.

He head butted Tall Tailless till he fell over again from where he had sat up, making the high yip-yowl of tailless amusement.

 _Soon_ , Wolf told him, and ran off to find the pack sister.

That evening as they sit by the fire, Tall Tailless covers her paw with his. She seemed surprised, but didn't pull her paw away. The look he shoots Wolf a look that says _I'm trying._

 _Try harder,_ Wolf sniffed.

And he does, Wolf noticed over the next few lights and darks. Wolf knew that the Taillesses took each other's paws sometimes, and even if wolves did not like being wrapped up in the forelimbs of taillesses, amongst taillesses it was a sign of friendship. Tall Tailless tries, and sometimes the pack sister would laugh and other times would be quiet, but always she would reciprocate.

Then one dusk, Tall Tailless was especially nervous, though he hid it well. Wolf nosed at his face in curiosity.

_I've only done this once before, he gulped. And then I ran away and we've never spoken of it since._

Wolf had to take a minute to remind himself that Tall Tailless was very clever. Even if sometimes he behaved like just another of Wolf's cubs. A very silly cub.

***

Their evening had started off as it usually did. Gathering firewood, picking some of the late spring berries for night meal, collecting the fish they had caught from the lines they had set up and checking the snares they had set earlier.

They've been on their own for weeks now and they don't even need to speak anymore to finish off the work quickly and set the cleaned and gutted fish to cook over the spit on the fire.

Not needing to talk, however, was very different from not _wanting_ to talk to Renn.  
She's been troubled these past weeks and characteristically refuses to speak about it. Although Torak knew better than to directly ask about it. He could count on one hand the number of issues that bothered her that much, and at this point most of them were dead or resolved. She'd tell him in her own time.

They had kept things from each other before, more and more as Eostra had closed in on the forest, on him. He'd hated those weeks before the fight in the bowels of the Mountain of Ghosts. The way the weight of everything unspoken between them would crush the air out of their lungs to say what should have been said.

How the night before he'd left to climb the mountain and face the last Soul Eater, he'd tried without words to tell Renn everything she meant to him.

His ‘final goodbye' might have been a little more impressive if she hadn't ignored him completely, followed him up the Mountain and promptly saved him the next day.

He wanted a second chance to tell her exactly how he felt, now when they could sit and talk for hours on end with no threat to everyone and everything they loved.

He'd enjoyed teaching her wolf-speak more than he ever could have imagined.  
Every evening, they'd practice the sounds, the growls, whines and yips.   
Initially, the wolves had been confused at the string of vocalizations but had soon learnt to ignore the lessons in the passing weeks.

He teased her as often as he could about how sometimes the lower growls which he could easily make with his deeper register would catch in her throat and send her into a fit of coughing. She'd tease him back with how she was better than him at hitting the higher yips, that even Wolf would blink at in approval.

Torak took a deep breath as he got back to the shelter with his collection of early cloud berries. Tonight was special. She'd nearly learnt everything he had to teach her about what parts of wolf talk he knew, except for two of the most important parts. Howling, and muzzle licks.

Renn knew how to howl. It was one of the first things she’d picked up after knowing them. She'd gotten much better at it after she had lost the grouse bone whistle though, even if they were still a little wobbly. But howling with the pack was special, and it was what they were going to do today. Once you howled with the pack, no matter where you were, you were always part of that pack. Howling made you wolf. Even the moon was perfect for it, bright and large in the sky.

"Congratulations on your last lesson," he told her, lips nearly cracking from how wide his smile was. "Just two more parts to master."

Bellies full of fish, he pulled Renn to her feet grinning, making her laugh too with the force of his excitement.

"Howling may just be the most important part of wolf talk," he told her. “You don't have to be the loudest in the pack, but it helps if you think that you're trying to get the moon to listen as well."

Her dark eyes threw the fire light back at him. _"Show me_ ," they seemed to say.

Torak started his howl, eyes closed and hands cupped around his mouth. Wolf, Darkfur and Pebble joined in immediately, joy palpable as their howls turned into one. Rip and Rek croaked irritably and tucked their heads under their wings.

When she didn't join in, he opened his eyes to find her looking intently at him, expression unreadable.

He took her hand. "Join in," told her, rubbing his thumb on the callouses over her fingers.

He watched the way Renn tiled her head back, closed her eyes and began her own howl. This time, Torak didn't drag his gaze away like he usually did from the delicate arch of her neck, the way her eyelashes cast long, slender shadows across her clan tattoos in the firelight. The way her hair in the soft light from the flames was like the forest in autumn.

She stopped howling to look back at him in puzzlement when this time he didn't join, too busy drinking her in. They still held each other's hands.

"That was good," he told her.  
"But ?"  
"But you need to let it come from deeper inside you."  
The wolves were still calling to the moon, soothing as a lullaby in the background.

Renn blinked at him slowly, lynx-like and heavy lidded. But no, her look wasn't that of the cat. Torak tried not gulp when he realized this was her using wolf talk on him, asking him to show her how.

He'd faced down his father’s nasty friends, he told himself. He could do this.

Torak gently disentangled his hand from hers. He hadn't realized how close they had ended up standing to each other, but he took a step closer.

"Chin higher," he told her quietly, mouth very dry. Carefully, making sure she knew what he was doing, he gently tilted her chin up with two fingers, thumb lightly stroking one along the line of her jaw.

Renn grew very, very still.

"If you call from your throat, you'll loose your voice." He let his hand drop from her jaw to trail a single finger down the column of her neck. Bit back a smile as he felt her swallow.

He stopped with his palm flat against her chest, just below her collarbones. He pretends not to feel her heartbeat strong and quick beneath his hand.

"It needs to come not even from here," He tapped her breastbone between the lacings of her jerkin, stepping even closer as he did so.

When they had first met, Renn had stood about half a handsbreadth taller than him. Now, as her pushed back locks of her hair from where strands curled around the base of her throat, he had to look down and Renn’s neck was craned almost uncomfortably to meet his eyes.

And then, Torak stepped quickly around and behind her, his fingers still tracing the ridge of her collarbone so that his arm was nearly all the way around her shoulders.

"But all the way from here," he whispered, mouth close to her ear from behind her, resting his chin gently on her shoulder as he moved his hand down to rest it flat against her belly.

Renn stood still like a rock in front of him, so much narrower than himself, lean muscle hard beneath his palm.

"Now, try again."

This time when Renn howled, he joined her, pressed close against her back, both arms around her from behind. Her voice never faltered as she raised her own hands to cover his, interlocking their fingers.

When they could howl no more, they stood together, Renn warm as she leaned back against him, still holding his hands tight within her own. He closed his eyes, her hair tickling his nose. She smelt like the open sky, and the sweet smelling herbs she'd found for night meal earlier. Torak wished he could freeze this moment to last till long after the sun stopped rising in the sky.

He forgot how long they stood like that for, watching the moon and listening to the delight in the wolves' voices.

Presently, she turned slightly in his arms.

"What was the second part ?" she asked, snuggling her head against his shoulder.  
"Hmm ?"  
Renn tuned around completely to look at him. She poked his chest.  
"Howling was the only first part of what you had to show me. What's the second part." She looked at him pointedly.  
Torak snapped out of the soft, pleasant haze he'd fallen into. He winked at her, grinning even wider at the wary look on her face.

"Howling," he said, pressing his forehead against hers and then pulling back to look at Renn,"may be the most _important_ part. But muzzle licks are the most _fun._ "

Her eyes widened in alarm.

"You are _not_ licking my face."

Torak began laughing then, and had to sit down when he got a catch in his side, wiping the tears that streamed from his eyes. Renn fumed silently beside him. He finally stumbled to his feet, still snorting with mirth when she stalked off in a huff.

Wolf, Darkfur and Pebble watched interestedly, cocking their heads as one.

"Renn !" He called, trying for a steady voice and failing as he jogged after her.

"Renn," he caught her arm to stop her angry march and shuffled so that he stood in front of her, both hands on her shoulders. She crossed her arms and glared out into the dark, looking pointedly away from him.

"I promise you, I will not lick your face." he snickered. At which she turned the heat of her gaze directly on him. He raised his hands from her shoulders to cradle her face instead. Despite her obvious annoyance at him, Renn leaned into his touch. "I think you’ll find what I have planned is a lot nicer," he told her with a smile as he drew closer.

***

His pack brother was soundly asleep. He had closed his eyes and been lost to the world within minutes, curled around his mate from behind, one forelimb wrapped around her middle. But the pack sister still lay awake. Careful not to wake him, she rolled out of his embrace and made her way to where Wolf lay besides Darkfur. She twitched up an ear at the disturbance, and went back to sleep when she realized it was just the pack sister. Wolf wagged his tail in greeting, sleepy himself.

The pack sister crouched besides him on her knees, paws tangling in his scruff. She pressed her face along the length of his, her sharp, clean scent usually so distinct from that of Tall Tailless now mixed interestingly with his, filling Wolf's nose.  
_Thank you,_ she told him.  
Wolf sat up and covered her face in snuffle licks. _I love you_ he told her. _And so does he,_ Wolf said, looking over to where his pack brother lay asleep.  
Her muzzle crinkled in the way the taillesses smiled. _I know. But you're the one who got him to do anything about it. So thank you._  
Wolf yawned. _Sleep now_ , he told her. He knew that behaving like mature, grow up wolves, which they both had finally done for once (!) always tired one out. She needed her sleep. The pack sister pressed her mouth between his eyes one final time, lips still swollen slightly from the muzzle licks Tall Tailless had taught her earlier.  
Wolf waited until she was lying once again besides her mate, wrapping her forelimb around him from the back this time.  
Wolf put his head back down on his forepaws and closed his eyes.

Yes, her souls were still not completely at ease, and he could tell uncertainty still coloured her dreams, but this did not worry Wolf.  
For whenever her souls felt lost, he’d be there to find them and guide them back home.  
He always would.

**Author's Note:**

> To start adding to the miniscule collection of CoAD works, this is my first contribution ! which will hopefully be followed by more. Will mostly consist of a bunch of loosely connected one-shots exploring intresting character interactions we never saw in the books and other hijinks that would definitely ensue when you set two teenagers and a non-homogenous wolf pack loose on the forest.


End file.
